1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insert-force-free connector for connecting wire harnesses and the like, and more particularly, to an insert-force-free connector in which very little inserting force is caused between the connectors.
2. Related Art
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional connector which is made up of a male connector a provided with female terminals and a female connector b having male terminals protruding inside a receiving portion c into which the male connector a is inserted.
With such a conventional connector, however, there has been a problem that as the number of terminals increases (i.e., multi-polarization), the inserting force between the male and female connectors increases, making the engagement of both connectors more difficult.
To reduce the inserting force between multi-polarized connectors, insert-force-free connectors shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 have been suggested.
The insert-force-free connector shown in FIG. 7 is made up of a male connector 110 provided with a lever 111 at the upper end of the housing, a female connector 120 which stands in the center of a receiving portion 120a having a following shaft 121 connected to the lever 111 penetrating the housing of the male connector 10 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-319271).
With such a structure, even if the number of terminals increases, the male connector 110 can be inserted into the receiving portion 120a of the female connector 120 with only a small force by rotating the lever 111 through an angle of 180.degree..
The insert-force-free connector shown in FIG. 8 is made up of a male connector 210 having cam protrusions 211 protruding from one of the side surfaces, a female connector 220 for accommodating the male connector 210, and a slider 230 to be inserted into the female connector 220 through insertion holes 221 for inserting the male connector 210 into the female connector 220. The slider 230 is provided with cam grooves 231 for guiding the cam protrusions 211 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-169529).
By virtue of the cam protrusions 211 and the cam grooves 231, the male connector 210 can be inserted into the receiving portion 220a of the female connector 220 just by pushing the slider 230 into the female connector 220 with only a small force.
With the above two conventional insert-force-free connectors, however, there has been a problem in that friction is inevitably caused by the sliding movements of the male connectors 110 and 210 along the side walls of the receiving portions 120a and 220a (or the slider 230, to be exact).
The male connectors 110 and 210 and the female connectors 120 and 220 are provided with female terminals and male terminals, respectively, and electric connection is conducted by inserting the male terminals into the female terminals. Thus, an inserting force is also inevitably caused between the male and female terminals.
With the conventional insert-force-free connectors, the frictional force caused when inserting the male connectors 110 and 210 into the receiving potions 120a and 220a, and the inserting force caused between the terminals of the male connectors 110 and 210, and the female connectors 120 and 220, can be reduced by use of the lever 111 and the slider 230. However, such a frictional force and inserting force cannot be eliminated, leaving much room for improvement in conventional insert-force-free connectors.